{"id":26620,"date":"2018-12-05T16:12:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/?p=26620"},"modified":"2019-02-18T16:42:48","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T15:42:48","slug":"saric-case-international-investigation-second-judgement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/saric-case-international-investigation-second-judgement\/","title":{"rendered":"Saric Case: from International Investigation to Second Judgement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The judgement for smuggling nearly six tons of cocaine will be pronounced to Darko Saric and members of his group on Monday. On that occasion, KRIK summarises key moments of the case, details of the investigation and trial, and points to key controversies that have followed the case in the past ten years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By: Bojana Jovanovic and Stevan Dojcinovic<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Saric on the radar<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Due to suspicion of being involved in drug trafficking, Darko Saric was under supervision of domestic intelligence services since 2005, however, the investigation was launched only three years later.<\/p>\n

Heroin in garage<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2007, the police found 20 kilograms of heroin in a car parked in a garage in New Belgrade, which belonged to Darko Saric and his brother Dusko. Four people were arrested, including their cousin Arso Saric. No investigation was launched against the brothers, but they were both invited to testify. Dusko told the court that he gave keys to the garage to his cousin Arso so he could take care of his car.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I found out that a car with 20 kilograms of heroin was found in my garage, I was in shock and I don\u2019t understand why the drug was brought to my garage,\u201d said Dusko Saric then. He explained to the judge that his brother Darko could not come to testify because he had gone to France on a business trip.<\/p>\n

Rheas <\/em>police action in Brazil<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Darko Saric (photo: Facebook)<\/p><\/div>\n

In March 2008, the Brazilian police seized 1.2 tons of cocaine in Itatiba, about 90 kilometers from S\u00e3o Paulo. The drug was found with Dutch citizens, but the police established that they acquired 1.1 tons from Saric\u2019s group<\/em>. The prosecution claims that the Brazilian branch of the group was led by Nikola Dimitrijevic. The cocaine was transported from a S\u00e3o Paulo house, where it was stored, to the customers by cars with a special double bottom and using a pre-determined route.<\/p>\n

Maya<\/em> police action<\/strong><\/p>\n

In early 2008, the Italian police uncovered a group of Balkan cocaine smugglers. The police discovered it after the Maya<\/em> action, in which the Italian criminal Francesco Petrelli, who worked for the Salvaggio criminal group, was arrested. Petrelli agreed to cooperate with the police and told them that a group of cocaine dealers, made up of citizens of the Balkan countries, quickly forced its way into the market in Milan. According to him, the group was successful in conquering the market primarily due to its quality cocaine, and their trademark were their multicolored balloons in which they packed the drugs. During 2008, the Milan police seized more than 700 kilograms of the group\u2019s cocaine in several actions.<\/p>\n

International operation failed because of a mole<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first serious team that was dealing with international smugglers was assembled in 2008 and was composed of representatives of the Serbian police headed by Milorad Veljovic, operatives of the Security Information Agency (BIA), whose director then was Sasa Vukadinovic, the Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime led by Miljko Radisavljevic and the officials of the British Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).<\/p>\n

The big operation, however, failed.<\/p>\n

The smugglers that transported from Argentina to Europe 1.8 tons of cocaine hidden in a soybean packages on their ships Golden<\/em> and Verti<\/em>, received a tip that the police in Greece, to where the drug was supposed to be sent, were about to search both ships. The smugglers had therefore delivered the cocaine in Spain and thus avoided its seizure.<\/p>\n

At that time, Rodoljub Radulovic, one of Saric’s associates and owner of both ships, met with the Ministry of Interior\u2019s top people \u2013 then Minister of Interior Ivica Dacic, his national security adviser Ivica Toncev, Head of Dacic\u2019s Cabinet Branko Lazarevic and Deputy Head of Cabinet Vanja Vukic. Those meetings were secretly recorded by the Security Information Agency (BIA). KRIK came into possession of the recordings and released them.<\/p>\n

Witness associate Drasko Vukovic told the court that at the end of 2008 one of the group’s chiefs told him that they had an insider at the Ministry of Police who was informing Radulovic on the cocaine smuggling investigation. Because of that, they had to change the way they communicated and switch from telephone to internet communications. They started communicating via Skype, e-mail, and via unsent draft messages.<\/p>\n

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Seizure during Petrelli\u2019s arrest in Maya operation (photo: KRIK)<\/p><\/div>\n

Balkan Warrior<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After the failed operation, the next international team for the investigation of Saric\u2019s group was formed in collaboration with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The prosecution and the Security Information Agency (BIA) led the investigation on Serbian part, while the police were excluded due to the previous information leakage.<\/p>\n

This team\u2019s efforts led to the international action named Balkan Warrior<\/em> which started in October 2009. In addition to the aforementioned parties, the Uruguayan and Argentine police participated as well. Not far from the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, 2.1 tons of cocaine were found on the Maui <\/em>luxury yacht. The drug was seized because the group failed to transfer it on time to an ocean-going ship that would transport it to Europe. That same day, the Serbian police arrested in Kragujevac Zeljko Vujanovic, a relative of Darko Saric, as well as several other persons suspected of being members of the criminal group. According to the testimony of his associate Nebojsa Jestrovic, Darko Saric went from Podgorica to Geneva that day for a meeting with businessman Stanko Subotic.<\/p>\n

Seizure of half a ton of cocaine in Argentina<\/strong><\/p>\n

After following the members of the organisation in Buenos Aires, the Argentine police discovered the house where the group was keeping 490 kilograms of cocaine. The drug, packed in multicolored balloons, was found in a hidden partition of a lift pane in an old, lapsed house in November 2009.<\/p>\n

Warrant for Saric<\/strong><\/p>\n

In January 2010, Serbia issued an international warrant for Darko Saric. Before the warrant was issued, Saric tried to renounce his Serbian citizenship and take a Montenegrin one, for which the local police granted. In his request for renunciation of Serbian citizenship, he stated that he intended to return to his birthplace because his mother was ill and that he had lost his job in Serbia. However, his request was rejected.<\/p>\n

A month later, Milo Djukanovic, then Prime Minister of Montenegro, confirmed in an interview for B92 that Saric had received guarantees for Montenegrin citizenship, but he also said that the police had not known then that he had committed any criminal offence. \u201cWe can talk about as many suspicions as we like, but we should not deprive people of basic rights, of a right to citizenship, based only on suspicions. If you\u2019ll allow it, we are not giving him freedom by doing so. We are not awarding him the Nobel Prize,\u201d said Djukanovic.<\/p>\n